Just wondering if anyone has had any experience with a horse that has fractured their hind leg cannon bone...

One of my geldings (who is 3 in Dec) was kicked by a mare in the paddock, awful crack sound was heard but not lame at the time so the vet prescribed a week's worth of penicillin & bute. Swelling came down initially but went back up again with a lot of discharge from the wound at the site of the kick. More penicillin for another 5 days, no reduction in swelling so x-rays were taken - looked like a fracture so he was taken to Murdoch who confirmed the fracture in the cannon bone. Because he is not lame on the leg, they advised to let nature take it's course & heal by itself. His leg is bandaged to reduce swelling & he is to be confined to a small yard for 8 weeks & then more x-rays are needed.

I am trying to learn all I can about it so I can help the healing process - I have been recommended magnets & bone supplements in his feed so far.

Poor boy!! All I can suggest is to cut out all his grain, pellets and other goodies so he is not full of beans with no where to go! Keeping him quiet is really important. Plus he does not want to be carrying around extra weight on that leg.

Just feed him lots of hay and some lucerne as this contains calcium and good protein. Just a daily hardfeed with lucerne chaff and his minerals is all I would feed. Cell-Oesto is one of the best bone food supps around. You can use this supp with Cell-Vital.

__________________Horses can only communicate through behaviour. The worse the behaviour, the dumber the owner.Mr HP.

This happened earlier this year to my cousins pregnant mare exept it was a front leg 3 inch fracture. Did exactly as you have been told from your vet exept the mare was not happy in small confinment so they put her in about half an acre instead, she ran around less this way. They also think it was from a kick. The vet was unsure she would carry the foal but she is now 2 weeks overdue and all is well. She has also had ultrasound recently and the vet is amazed how well she has healed, enough so that he thinks she will still be able to compete in dressage just not jumping.

a mate of mines horse fractured his front cannon, nothing too major, i cant remember how big the fracture was - maybe an inch?... the horse was prescribed 6wks paddock rest (to stop him going nuts in a yard and therefore risk doing more damage) and has had a full recovery so that he is back out eventing

personally i would be both feeding comfrey and putting ointment on unbroken flesh around the site... magnets will help with the swelling etc and any other bone supp you can give will help (such as cell-osteo which will help provide the extra mineral needed to repair the site) but comfrey is gold in my books for anything bone/tendon/ligament related

Thanks everyone. I have been speaking to John Kohnke's people & they recommended some supplements so I am onto that. Although they didn't mention Cell-Oesto so I might go & buy some of that today. He is actually pretty quiet in the yard at the moment although I have placed horses in the paddocks around him to keep him company. He is put into a very small portable electric fence yard for an hour morning & night to get some green pick & to get him out of his main yard. He is getting no grain & I am watching he doesn't stack on the weight also! Again, thanks.